Tell Kurdu is a large low bilobate mound covering
about 15 ha sets on the deltaic fan of the Afrin, about 3 km east of the
historic Lake of Antioch (see Fig. 1 for location); before the lake was
drained, marshes extended along the northern edge of the site. The site
encompasses two distinct mounds, a saddle running between the two. The
higher south mound presents moderately steep slopes to the south and east,
but elsewhere the mound presents very gentle topography. During the 1930s
the smaller south mound rose nearly 9 m above plain level, while the
larger mound in the north stood only 4 m high. Motivated by recent
development of cash crops like cotton, local landowners have bulldozed and
flattened areas around the edges of Tell Kurdu (readily evident in the
current rectangular appearance of the south mound, see Fig. 2), and have
pushed earth from the top of the south mound into the once deeper saddle
to the northwest. Careful topographic examination of the site and its
neighborhood indicates that the south mound has lost at least 1.7 m and
probably closer to 2.3 m from its top.

During Amuq C times Tell Kurdu was the major
settlement of the plain, and remained one of the main settlements into the
Amuq E period. Settlement survey has recorded 30 sites that definitely or
probably fall in the Amuq A-E range. While most of these settlements are
small, on the order of 1 ha, several places in the center of the plain are
considerably larger. Judging by intra-site surface distribution of
diagnostics and Braidwood's excavation results, the settlement at Tell
Kurdu covered around 15 ha during the later 6th millennium (Amuq C) when
it was by far the largest settlement of the plain. By the early 5th
millennium (Amuq E), Tell Kurdu had contracted to perhaps 5-7 ha on the
south mound (but see the reassessment below); Tell `Imar, 3 km to the
south, was also occupied at this time and may have been a substantial
settlement. The two-tiered primate pattern suggests a degree of hierarchy
and complexity during Amuq C-E times.

Braidwood placed four trenches in Tell Kurdu, three
on the south mound and one on the north, during a hurried two week
campaign in 1938. Digging in arbitrary levels, he carried Trench I, a 4 x
20 m exposure on the south mound, down 11.5 m to water table (not virgin
soil) nearly three meters below plain level. The pottery from this trench
forms the backbone of the Amuq C-E sequence, with the upper five meters of
the trench representing Amuq E, the next 4.5 m Amuq D, and the lowest two
meters Amuq C. The other two trenches on the south mound remained within
Amuq E levels. On the north mound, Trench IV reached Amuq C levels within
half a meter of the surface. Braidwood suggested that proximity of Amuq C
material to the surface of the north mound, and the thick deposits of Amuq
D-E on the south mound, implies earlier mounding in the north and later
formation of the south mound. The same observations also suggest that the
Amuq C occupation spread across the entire site area while the Amuq E
settlement lay only on the south mound. AVRP chose Tell Kurdu as the first
step of a long-term program of excavations at several different mounds.
The larger program seeks to examine intra-regional and interregional
dynamics through time in the Amuq plain. Tell Kurdu represents the Amuq
C-E (and possibly earlier) portion of the regional sequence, a time during
which settlement and probably a degree of social hierarchy emerged. The
changing pottery styles point to interactions with the Halaf and `Ubaid
worlds of northern
Mesopotamia
. As a regional center, Kurdu would have played a pivotal role in
interregional interactions. These interactions are likely to have
involved, among other factors, flows of raw materials from the neighboring
Amanus
Mountains
(e.g. serpentine, other stones, timber, and potentially copper and other
metals), and potentially craft production both for intra-regional
consumption and for extra-regional export. The Kurdu excavations seek to
investigate this set of issues in a community at the threshold of social
complexity. The excavations also have the secondary but still vital goal
of firming up and expanding Braidwood's Amuq ceramic sequence, both as
tool for analyzing surface collections for the regional survey and as a
contribution to the chronological framework of southeastern
Anatolia
and western
Syria
.

The work began in 1996 with a sounding in the south
mound, placed on its eastern slope at the edge of the recent bulldozer cut
(Fig. 2). The sounding revealed a mass of pisé architectural collapse and
a dense mass of burnt grain, above a level of more intact but incompletely
exposed architecture. The associated pottery was Amuq E in character, and
two radiocarbon dates place the upper phase around 4800 cal BC (see Yener
et al. in press for details). In 1998 excavation opened larger areas on
both south and north mounds (Fig. 2). A 225 sq m exposure on the summit of
the south mound (Tr
1/6/9
) documented a wide platform and large architectural complex with grill
rooms, open spaces, and ovens belonging to an early phase of Amuq E. A 100
sq m exposure on the east slope adjacent to the 1996 sounding (Tr 2)
uncovered two blocks of small

rooms and associated open space lying above a round
building, all dated to Amuq E. A 100 sq m exposure on the east side of the
north mound (Tr 4) found three Amuq E burials placed into a sequence of
trash deposits, burnt architectural debris and concentrations of burnt
grain, and more intact architecture of Amuq D date. In the central section
of the north mound a 25 sq m trench (Tr 7) exposed Amuq C residential
architecture and associated features. Elsewhere on the north mound
exploratory trenches (Tr 5 and 10) documented additional architecture of
undetermined date. A pilot magnetometry survey yielded mixed results,
detecting substantial, possibly tripartite architecture on the north mound
but yielding only ambiguous results elsewhere. The 1998 results
corroborated Braidwood's observations about site formation, and also
confirmed that different periods are readily accessible on different parts
of the mound.

The 1999 season of the Tell Kurdu excavations had
four basic objectives: (1) to further investigate an area of Amuq E
architecture on the eastern slope of the south mound; (2) to begin a step
trench down the east face of the south mound in order to create a more
detailed ceramic chronology for the Amuq C-E periods; (3) to investigate
architecture detected on the south mound during the 1998 magnetometry
survey; and (4) to investigate the extent of disturbance and depth below
modern surface of intact deposits on the northwest slope of the south
mound. The second season of full-scale excavations at Tell Kurdu opened
three major areas, and another three smaller portions of the site (Fig.
2). Each trench was excavated by a trench supervisor and assistant, and a
team of 4-6 workmen from neighboring villages. Excavators used pick and
shovel in poor contexts, and trowel and small pick in good contexts;
sediments from secure contexts (e.g. floor, trash, pit deposits, burials)
were screened (5 mm mesh) as samples that varied (0-100% of a given
deposit) according to the trench supervisor's assessment of the context.
This work revealed architecture, industrial areas, and associated trash
deposits that belong to the Amuq E (or Ubaid-related, c.
5000/4900-4400/4300 BC) , Amuq D (c. 5200-5000/4900 BC), and a late phase
of Amuq C (or Halaf-related, c. 5500-5200 BC) periods. In addition, a team
from Bogazici University Kandilli Observatory conducted a magnetometry
survey over two large portions of the site. The results of this work are
presented in reverse chronological order.

Amuq E

Tr 11 and 15 were two 10 x 10 m squares placed along
the west side of Tr 2, with Tr 15 encompassing the 1996 sounding (see Fig.
2 for locations). After the plowzone had been stripped off both trenches
and the location of the 1996 sounding firmly identified, time allowed
excavation only of the northern half of Tr 15 (north of the 1996
sounding). These trenches were intended to investigate further the complex
of small roomed buildings and exterior spaces of Tr 2, to determine the
wider context of the burnt architectural collapse and grain deposits of
the 1996 sounding, and to identify firm stratigraphic links between the
two earlier operations.

As elsewhere on the eastern slope of the south mound,
the modern plowzone covered a deeply developed soil 50 cm thick,
characterized by carbonate nodules and heavy bioturbation (in certain
sections, identifiable animal holes make up roughly half the exposure).
The deep bioturbation obscured stratigraphic context, leaving `floating'
features of more durable materials (e.g. clusters of grinding stones in Tr
11). Although most of the artifacts in this soil were prehistoric, more
recent objects like an early Byzantine copper coin also appeared.

The uppermost intact and coherent deposits in both
trenches (phase 1) were the kilns, surfaces, other features and associated
deposits of an industrial complex. This complex was most clearly preserved
in Tr 11, where a set of four (perhaps five) kilns were set around two
sides of a partially walled open space (Fig. 3). The kilns varied in shape
(kiln 11:4 was square, kilns 11:6 and 11:7 were round, and kiln 11:8 was
sub-rectilinear), but had similar dimensions and floor area (0.9-1.1 x
1.1-1.2 m, with floor areas 1.10-1.32 m2; see J. Casana below for further
discussion). Shallow rectangular pits
11:16
and
11:19
accompanied the kilns in the same alignment; only 10-15 cm deep, these
pits were filled with a fine silty soil. Poor preservation prevented
identification of kiln openings, so the functional relationship between
kilns and pits remains unclear. The perimeter wall
11:11
,
11:17
and
11:18
formed the dog-legged northern edge of the complex, with kiln 11:8 and pit
11:16
set into the dog-leg. This wall, a 25-35 cm wide mud brick structure, was
in places fire-hardened, especially in its western portions, but was lost
to erosion to the east. The short stretch of walling 11:9 appeared in the
southeast corner of the complex. Made of irregularly sized brick and baked
hard and reddened, this structure may have been the fragment of an
additional perimeter wall. The kilns and wall framed a surface
11:14
, which consisted of a dense and very compacted laminated clayey silt that
contained numerous flat-lying sherds and other artifacts; a notable
proportion of the sherds were overfired wasters. Just as with the northern
perimeter wall, erosion had truncated the floor to the east. Similarly
laminated clayey silt surfaces appeared to the north (surface
11:13
, fire hardened and reddened near wall
11:17
/
11:18
), west (surface
11:20
) and south (surface
11:15
) of the complex. These accretion surfaces were 7-8 cm thick. In Trench 15
Phase 1 may have been represented by the extremely poorly preserved
pyrotechnic facility 15:3. This was probably a kiln but it was so heavily
damaged by erosion and plowing that this identification is not certain. A
laminated clayey silt surface 15:5 comparable to those in Tr 11 extended
eastward of the facility. Ephemeral traces of kiln flooring or other
reddened and hardened surfaces appeared in western part of square. Below
the kiln complex, excavation exposed portions of four earlier buildings,
together with associated surfaces and facilities (Fig. 4). Although most
of these remains belong together as phase 2, certain stratigraphic
uncertainties prevent grouping them all. First the buildings themselves
will be described, and then the stratigraphic ambiguities will be
discussed.

An erosional wash deposit of pebbly silt (loc 21)
separated the phase 1 kiln complex in Tr 11 from a poorly preserved group
of rectilinear walls and features (Building A). The wall 11:34, 30 cm wide
and made of heavily chaff tempered pisé, formed the western margin of
this unit. The rectangular installation
11:24
, constructed of chaffy pisé and heavily burnt, sat on the north side of
wall
11:34
; this structure is very similar to the phase 1 kilns in form and
intensity of burning. Floor fragment 11:23, also burnt, ran eastward from
this installation; a broken pot lay upon this surface. An intentional fill
of very dense clayey silt that contained occasional Amuq C sherds extended
onto this floor, and served as the footing for the rectilinear burnt
feature 11:35, which had a basin-like floor. South of wall 11:34, a pebbly
and carbonate-rich clayey silt formed an exterior surface in which
occurred flat-lying sherds. This surface enclosed the rectangular packed
clay surface or floor 11:33, covering a 1.7 x 1.1 m area. Although no
walls were associated with this surface, it is distinctive enough to be
considered a floor, perhaps for an outbuilding constructed of reeds or
similar material. In the southwest corner of Tr 11 walls
11:28
and
11:29
, constructed of blocky gray-brown pisé, formed the corner of a room
(Building D). Excavation inside the room (
11:31
) encountered grinding stones and an Amuq E bichrome jar but could not
identify the surface upon which these material rested. Abutting wall 11:28
on the east was rectangular surface 11:30, paved with pisé slabs 10-15 cm
wide laid in elongated rows sometimes with vertical sherds placed in the
joints; a broken pottery vessel lay upon this surface. Ephemeral traces of
walling seemed to frame this pavement, and the exterior surface
11:27
lay beyond to the north and east. Four small circular features in surface
11:27
framed the paved surface
11:27
, and may represent post footings for an awning. The two features along
the north side of the pavement were packed with sherds, bone, and other
debris, while the two along the east side were filled with blocky clay
similar to pisé wall material. Surface
11:27
extended northeastward, and framed the `U'-shaped oven
11:25
north of Building A. The pit
11:32
was later cut into pavement
11:30
and surface
11:26
, and remains unphased.

In the western end of Tr 15 walls
15:12
,
15:14
, and
15:23
framed two rooms in the corner of Building C (Fig. 4). These walls varied
somewhat in their construction: wall 15:14 was a 60 cm wide double
coursing of fine gray pisé with pebble inclusions, walls 15:12 and 15:23
a single 30 cm wide course of fine gray chaff tempered pisé. The room
fill
15:10
contained a broken pot and reed impression upon a fragmentary burnt floor,
all buried under wall collapse. Outside the building, the deposit
15:18
(=
15:13
) ran over the stub of wall
15:12
in places and also both covered and enclosed the unexcavated feature
15:19
, an oval ring of burnt clay surrounded by gray ashy soil (perhaps an
oven). Further east were two additional ovens. Oven 15:7 was a domed oval,
about 1 x 1.6 m in area, within a thick (30 cm) rectilinear encasing wall;
the ashy contents included abundant burnt grain. Burnt collapse 15:9,
mixed with ash and burnt grain, lay against this oven and covered the
similar oven 15:21, exposed but not excavated in 1999. A third smaller
(perhaps .5 x .8 m) rectilinear installation (feature 15:8) lay to the
south; with only its southeast corner and floor preserved, the nature of
this facility remains unclear. The fine silty deposit
15:20
, which contained dense burnt grain, dipped sharply eastward from the
collapse 15:9 toward Building C.

A room formed by walls
15:15
and
15:11
occupied the eastern end of Tr 15 (Building B). As with Building C, these
walls were constructed in different manners. Wall 15:11 was built in a 75
cm wide double coursing of brownish gray blocky pisé, and wall 15:15
consisted of a 40 cm wide single course of finer gray pisé (with some
blocky admixture and burnt grain inclusions). The wall closing off the
western end of the room was difficult to discern, this area being heavily
disturbed by animal burrows. The two walls ran into the eastern section
and Tr 2. Although wall
15:11
appears to be an extension of wall
2:22
(Tr 2 phase 2), they actually seem not to be on the same alignment, thus
creating a stratigraphic question resolvable by future removal of the
baulk between the two trenches. The contents of the room
5:16
included a dense concentration of burnt grain, but excavation reached
neither a floor nor seemingly the base of the walls. The silt deposit 15:
20 with burnt grain may either run against Building B or continue beneath
this structure.

The stratigraphic relationships among these buildings
remains unsettled. Buildings C and D were most likely in contemporary use,
given their orientation and elevation. The group of ovens in Tr 15 fall
into at least two different phases, with ovens 15:7 and 15:8 associated
with collapse 15:9, which covered oven 15:21; oven 15:19 also seems older.
The exterior deposit
15:18
forms a solid link between oven 15:7 and Building C, grouping this oven
with the three buildings. The silty deposit
15:20
with dense burnt grain slopes up against collapse 15:9, and the grain
itself perhaps derived from oven 15:7. Deposit
15:20
may run down against Building B or beneath it, so this building remains
either contemporary with or earlier than the other buildings. The 20+ cm
difference in elevation across the baulk between the Building A surfaces
and the deepest exposures within Building B strongly suggest that the
latter is older. The grainy silt deposit 20 would then run against the
Building B wall stubs and the localized concentration of burnt grain (very
similar to the deposit
15:20
grain in specific composition; see Ekstrom, below) would be an
post-occupation trash deposit inside Building B. In this event, Building B
and the unexcavated ovens
15:19
and
15:21
represent phase 3, and would be aligned with the Tr 2 phase 2
architecture; the remaining buildings and related facilities would then
belong to phase 2, and align with the Tr 2 phase 1 ephemeral burnt
architecture. The same relationships also suggest that the Building A
remains post-dated deposit
15:20
and Buildings C and D, even though the exterior surfaces related to
Buildings C and A seemed to run together. These proposed stratigraphic
relationships can readily be tested with additional excavation.

Early Amuq E

This ceramic subphase appeared in Tr
1/6/9
on the current summit of the south mound, where extensive platforming and
associated architecture lie just beneath the surface. Tr 14, placed at the
edge of the bulldozer cut along the eastern side of this mound, exposed
architecture of a similar date but very different character. The bulldozer
cut deepened an existing indentation in the south mound (shown in the 1938
topographic map; Braidwood and Braidwood 1960 Fig. 13) to create a level
agricultural field at the base of the mound. The west section of the cut
exposed several meters of steeply sloping bedded ash and trash deposits
that run southward up against apparent platforming and other architecture.
Both Braidwood's results in 1938 and our own in 1998 indicate that this
area of the south mound may be the only portion of Tell Kurdu in which a
relatively complete stratigraphic sequence (Amuq C-early E) is available.
The excavation in Tr 14 is the upper part of a step trench that seeks to
document this sequence, with the goal of obtaining a finer-grained ceramic
sequence than Braidwood was able to accomplish during his limited time on
the site.

Tr 14 began as a 4 x 8 m trench oriented E-W
perpendicular to the edge of the bulldozer cut, placed above the sloping
trash and ash beds and between large animal holes in the bulldozer section
(Fig. 5). During the course of the season, the trench was extended another
three meters eastward (downslope), and divided into two steps: Step I a 4
x 4.5 m area to the west and Step II a 4 x 5.5 m area to the east,
separated by a 50 cm wide baulk. Although Step II attained a depth half a
meter greater than did Step I, the two parts of the trench remained within
the same stratigraphic phase due to sharply dipping stratigraphy in this
part of the mound.

Unlike the bulldozed summit of the south mound, where
only a thin current plowzone covered intact archaeological deposits, east
edge of the mound retained a deeply developed soil. In the Tr 14 exposure
this soil (including the current plowzone) was 60-70 cm thick to the west
and deepened to 90 cm to the east. Below the recent plowzone, this soil
was a light brown blocky loam in which nodules of redeposited calcium
carbonate increased with depth. Architectural collapse, ash, several
concentrations of ground stone and pottery, and a small relatively recent
hearth floated within these soil units, their original contexts having
been disrupted by pedogenesis. The contrast between Tr 14 and Tr 1/6/9 has
important implications both for appreciating the extent of recent
disturbance of the south mound and for understanding earlier mound
topography and site formation (see below).

This thick topsoil capped intact architecture and
associated trash deposits. The 1999 work uncovered two architectural
phases across both steps of the trench, the lower phase of which appeared
at the bottom of the exposure at the end of the season and remained
unexcavated. The upper architecture (phase 1) included portions of three
rooms of a building in Step I and a contemporary cross wall at the east
side of Step II, with sloping trash deposits running between them.

The Step I building was represented by a large
portion of one room (the north room) and corners of two additional rooms
(south and west rooms), the rest of the building extending into the west,
north and south sections (Fig. 5a). The well-preserved walls 6 and 7 that
formed the southeast corner of the main room still stood 55-65 cm high.
These two walls were constructed in courses of gray brown pisé, in which
thin horizontal joints of mud were visible but vertical and cross joints
were absent. A 1.1 m wide doorway in wall 7 gave access to the north room
from the east. A pisé blocking in the doorway raised the height of its
threshold at least once, in order to accommodate the deposits that
accumulated inside the north room during the existence of the building.
Wall 43 formed an extension of wall 7 to the southeast, but its preserved
top was noticeably lower (35 cm) than that of wall 6 and 7 and it was
somewhat wider than wall 7. Wall 27, the western wall of the north room,
was similar in size and construction technique to the other walls of this
room, but was poorly made and badly preserved to only 35 cm in height.
These walls went out of use at different times during the life of the
building, with both walls 27 and 43 disappearing before activity ceased in
the north room.

The north room contained a 60 cm thick series of
floors interstratified with accumulated debris. The earliest definite
floor (floor 45) was a surface of compressed white soil with numerous reed
impressions. This floor abutted all three walls of the north room,
implying that wall 27 already existed at this point. Feature 44 appeared
within the floor, a cylindrical arrangement of broken grinding stones and
other rocks, sherds, bone and other artifacts set in clay, 35 cm across
and 40 cm deep, and capped with a 4-5 cm thick coat of plaster flush with
floor 45. The purpose of this construction remains unclear. Floor 45
rested upon deposit 46, a layer of red-brown earth that ran up against the
lower coursing of the room's walls; a large grinding stone faced with
plaster on one side had been emplaced at the bottom of deposit 46 next to
the lower threshold of wall 7. Since the coursing of wall 7 rested upon a
compact red silt at the same elevation as deposit 46, the later deposit
probably represents deliberate fill laid down during the initial
construction (or a major renovation) of the building. Floor 45 also capped
a 35 cm thick pit-like accumulation of ash that covered an irregular 2 x 2
m area in the southern end of the building; this ash accumulation 50
contained notable amounts of oven lining and discarded ground stone, and
may have been a pit cut into deposit 46 or the remains of a thoroughly
collapsed oven around which deposit 46 was placed.

After a brown earth with ash lenses (loc 38, 5 cm
thick) had accumulated upon floor 45, a second white beaten earth surface
(floor 30) was laid down. Another brown earth with ash lenses (loc 28), 10
cm thick, then covered floor 30. At this point the nature of deposition
inside the room changed, and a 20 cm thick deposit of thinly bedded ash
and earth (loc 15) formed as an accreting surface within the room above
loc 28. This accreting surface was associated with a succession of ovens
in the southern end of the room. Hearth 16 lay in the northwest corner of
the excavated exposure, near the presumed corner of the room within the
accumulation of loc 15. Floor 14, a white beaten earth surface capped loc
15 and ran across wall 27. At some point during the build-up of room
contents, a deliberate blocking of pale brown pisé coursing raised the
threshold of the doorway in wall 7. The resulting upper threshold was
definitely associated with floor 14 and may have been related to floor 30.
The new threshold was noticeably higher than both the room floor and the
exterior surface to the east, and a pisé step against the outside face of
wall 7 facilitated egress. An ash deposit spread over floor 14 and across
the upper threshold. The final unit of accumulation within the room was
architectural collapse and subsequent soil development that buried the
last of the ovens and filled the room to the top of the wall stubs.

The ovens in the north room presented the same shape,
orientation and dimensions. Oven 13 was the best preserved of the three.
This oven was shaped like a 1.1 x .7 m flask, with curved side walls and
rounded bottom, but flat vertical rear wall at its SE end; squared-off rim
fragments in the collapse within the oven showed that it was open at the
top. Placed in the corner of walls 6 and 27 with its long axis parallel to
wall 27, the oven also had an opening through its NW end, with a shallow
ash-filled pit (loc 11) just outside. The oven walls were fire reddened
pisé, 3-4 cm thick. Inside the oven was an ash bed capped by oven wall
collapse, and then a subsequent accumulation of ash, some sherds and
animal bone (loc 5). Oven 21 and its relining 18 were also flask-shaped
with a straight vertical rear wall and ash pit (loc 24) immediately
outside a poorly preserved entrance from the NW. The base of oven 21 was
laid within foundation pit 33, cut into floor 30: this hollow was
partially filled with small stones (including numerous broken grinding
stones) and ash, and its edges stabilized with thin plaster lines. A
retaining wall 32 was placed against the western side of oven 21 at the
same time that oven 13 was constructed, and perhaps as part of the
rehabilitation of the oven. Made of red and gray bricks, this structure
had two parts: one course curved around the edge of the oven 21/18 west
wall, and an abutting straight course ran between oven 13 and oven 21/18.

The stratigraphic relationships of these ovens with
the floors and accumulating deposits inside the north room are somewhat
unclear. Oven 21, the earliest of the series, may have been emplaced into
floor 45 but seems more likely to have been built when or after floor 30
had been laid down. The base of oven 13, the latest of the series, rests
upon the latter floor: since its shape requires that the oven be sunk at
least partially into a surrounding surface, it probably was built after
deposit 28, or even part of surface 15, had accumulated. Ovens 13 and 18
(the renovation phase of oven 21) were in simultaneous operation during
all or most of the surface 15 accretion, but oven 13 remained active after
oven 18/21 had passed out of use, as floor 14 covers the latter
installation as well as wall 27.

The other two exposed rooms of the building presented
less eventful depositional histories. The south room contained a
succession of two, and perhaps three, floors separated by brown trashy
soils (loc 51=42, 37, 22 from bottom to top). The lowest of the floors was
a patch of an irregular reed-impressed white surface that sloped markedly
to the southeast; the higher two floors were also reed-impressed white
surfaces. Although some ash was present in the deposit above the second
floor (loc 37), the sediments in the south room generally lacked the
detritus from intense firing activities evident in the north room. The
chronological position of this room remains ambiguous. Wall 43 was not a
straightforward extension of wall 7, being both wider and preserved to a
lower elevation than the latter wall. The south room passed out of use
before the north room: the stub of wall 43 lay below both the uppermost
ash beds associated with the final phase of oven activity in the north
room, and the upper portion of loc 22 (which must in turn be roughly
equivalent to loc 41=34; see below). The relative sequence of construction
is uncertain, as excavation has not yet identified the base of wall 43,
and bonding evidence is not available -- the wall may equally have been
erected after or before walls 6 and 7. The west room, defined by wall 27
and the western end of wall 6 barely appeared within the excavated area.
The sediment in this narrow space was a very dense, hard brown soil within
which a possible surface appeared. Like the south room, the west room
passed out use before the north room, floor 14 of which covered wall 27 to
unite the previously divided spaces.

The upper units of the sloping trash deposits visible
in the bulldozer cut ran up against the Step I building from the
northeast. The 1999 work uncovered six distinct units of these deposits.
An extremely hard gray brown deposit (loc 54=60) formed the bottom of the
1999 exposure; although this unit was not excavated, the eastern bulldozer
section shows it to be about 5 cm thick and to cap a softer ash deposit.
Above loc 54=60 lay a 2-4 cm thick bed of hardened dark gray to black ash
accompanied by abundant organic material (loc 48=52). Capping this ash bed
was a nearly continuous surface of dense blocky white sediment, 1-3 cm
thick, that bore abundant impressions of reeds (loc 36=40). The reed
impressions presented no coherent orientation, either of matting or of
buried natural growth, and seem rather to have been a haphazardly
deposited bed. A 7-10 cm thick trash deposit of brown earth (loc 41=34)
with abundant animal bones (notably complete skulls and vertebrae of large
animals) covered the reed surface, pinching out to the northeast; this
deposit also covered a lens of ash (loc 47) that rested directly upon the
reed surface. A relatively thick (14-18 cm) deposit of black and dark gray
ash (loc 12=23=39) appeared above the brown trash unit; the heterogeneity
of this deposit seems to reflect disposal of ash from several different
sources. The Step I building was one such source -- the ash can be traced
across the upper threshold in wall 7 and onto floor 14. A brown soil with
carbonate concretions adjacent to the Step I building (truncated by
erosion to the east) contained some ash lenses, fragments of oven wall,
and traces of hardened exterior surfaces (loc 9); the nature of this
sediment suggests that post-depositional soil development obliterated
remains of the final phase(s) of activity within the building.

With the exception of the ash bed 12=23=39 and the
truncated surface that overlies it, these units ran downslope to the line
of wall 56 (Fig. 5b). This wall was itself poorly preserved and remains
somewhat hypothetical, its existence implied by a very clear plaster line
that obliquely crosses Step II and by the abrupt eastern termination of
the bedded trash and ash deposits above this line. Wall 55, a gray pisé
structure only 22 cm thick, followed an irregular line within loc 54=60 in
Step I at right angles to wall 56; the putative corner formed by these two
walls lay north of the excavated exposure. Enclosed by the lower units of
the accumulating slope of bedded trash, these two walls identified the
earliest architectural phase discovered in the 1999 work, a phase not yet
excavated. Northeast of the wall 56 line, excavation encountered a
different set of trash deposits and architecture. Here the trash deposits
58, 57, and 35=53 were highly indurated gray soil with ash and charcoal,
abundant small sherds and fragmented animal bone, forming three similar
beds separated by very thin white surfaces. The deposits 58 and 54 that
bracket wall 56 were very similar in appearance and elevation, but cannot
yet definitely be equated. The well-built wall 29, an associated surface
and related deposits lay upon these hard trash deposits. Wall 29 was
constructed in brick-like courses, two wide and preserved three high, a
thin reed bed separating the courses; the absence of clear joints within
the coursing leaves uncertain the use of bricks in this construction. A
white plaster appeared on the western face of this wall, and a patch of
white plastered floor abutted the wall on the east. Mixed wall collapse
and trash enclosed the wall; to the west, this deposit (loc 26) ran over
wall 56 and onto the northeastern edge of reed surface 36 and
interdigitated with ash bed 39. Although loc 26 could not be divided into
finer components, the greater part of this 30 cm thick unit appeared to
have formed after ash 39 had been deposited. These stratigraphic
relationships place the construction and then collapse of wall 29 within
the span of the Step I building, and after the burial of walls 55 and 56.

Late Amuq C

The 1998 magnetometry survey revealed extensive and
seemingly tripartite architecture in the center of the north mound. Tr
12/16 explored the western edge of this area. Both trenches were 10 x 10
m, but only the western half of Tr 16 was excavated. These trenches
uncovered 150 m2 of a large building complex, but the exposure was not
sufficient to determine the overall lay-out (tripartite or otherwise) of
the building (Fig. 6).

The surficial truncated features, phase 1, involved
pits and burials cut into the underlying intact deposits of phase 2. Since
the surfaces from which these features originated are now lost, the
features do not necessarily refer to contemporaneous events, and phase 1
has little chronological coherence. The features grouped in phase 1
include four pits, two adult burials and an infant jar burial. The pits
cut through the architectural collapse and into the underlying phase 2
buildings and deposits. Pit
12:11
(2.1 m across, 50 cm deep), cut through wall 12:16 of phase 2, contained
bedded lenses of ash and trash, diverse domestic artifacts, and some Amuq
D pottery diagnostics (fine-line painted, corrugated and corrugated
painted, wiped burnished, and bow rims). Pits 12:8 (1.3 m across, 30 cm
deep),
12:10
(25 cm across, 10 cm deep), and
16:12
(1.0 m across, 35 cm deep) contained less ash and fewer artifacts.

The infant jar burial
12:12
lay within a shallow pit that cut into collapse and wash that covered
phase 2 architecture. No burial goods accompanied the interment. Burials
12:13
and
12:14
were adults placed in pits. Burial
12:13
was extremely poorly preserved -- only the arms, a scapula and several
ribs remained in anatomical position, the remaining bones plucked out of
context by the plow which also obscured the pit into which the body had
been placed. Although a plow scar ran through burial
12:14
, and the cranium and pelvis of the skeleton were missing, this burial was
otherwise intact. The body had been placed within a pit in a tightly
flexed position on its left side, its head oriented westward and it face
looking north. The burial pit was placed against a wall of a phase 2 room,
cutting through both room contents and floor (floor 12:28) but not the
wall, circumstances suggesting that interment occurred as a late episode
in the use of the room or soon after its abandonment. The burial pit
contained five sling pellets and a bone awl. Phase 2 of Tr 12/16 was an
architectural complex that covered the entire excavated area (Fig. 6). The
complex included a suite of rooms, a walled courtyard with ancillary
structures, and several other outdoor spaces. The walls of this
architectural complex presented strikingly various character. Three major
walls --
12:15
,
12:16
, and 12:29=16:6 -- and the northern wall of the linear suite of rooms
(wall
12:21
) were exceptionally thick (.7-1.1 m wide) and extremely soft in
consistency. Several cuts into these walls showed them to consist of thin
beds of puddled greenish gray ashy mud; at least in wall 12:15 more solid
brick-work appeared below these beds (bricks of 55 x 20-25 cm format).
Excavation has not yet reached the foundation of any of these walls,
leaving this aspect of their construction unknown. An outer skin of mud
brick appeared on several walls: wall
12:49
along the north face of wall
12:15
, wall
16:40
along the east face of wall 16:6, probably along the western face of wall
12:29
, and perhaps along the north face of wall
16:21
. Wall
16:40
was laid in a header-and-stretcher pattern, with alternating gray and red
bricks. Since this brickwork never appeared on both faces of a given wall,
and may in fact represent secondary construction, the builders probably
used temporary slurry walls (e.g. braced wooden planking) to contain the
puddled mud of the major walls. A white plaster finish appeared on the
western face of wall 12:16.

Wall 16:8 ran parallel to wall
12:16
=16:6 about two meters to the east, and was constructed of pisé (or
possibly of indistinct mud bricks) in which a clear joint defined two
courses across the width of the wall but with no other visible jointing;
this wall was 70 cm thick. The poorly preserved wall
12:57
may be an extension of wall 16:8. Mud brick wall
16:17
, two course (80 cm) wide, ran northeastward from wall 16:8, forming the
northwest side of an open area. Cross walls ran between the parallel walls
16:8 and 12:16=16:6, to frame the suite of rooms. Wall
12:21
, previously described, was the northernmost of these cross-walls to be
excavated; the area north of wall
12:21
was a brick paved surface that is not certainly the interior floor of an
additional room. The four additional cross-walls that appeared within the
excavated area defined the five rooms of the suite. These walls presented
alternating formats of construction and size. Wall 12:24 was a coarse
brown pisé structure; like wall 16:8 it was two courses thick but only 35
cm wide. Walls
16:20
and 16:9 were also pisé, but only one course thick and 25 cm wide. Wall
16:37, between the latter two walls, was mud brick with clear joints, one
course thick and 40 cm wide. These cross-walls formed rooms about 1.5 x
2.0 m in size. Each room presented a somewhat different depositional
history. In the northernmost room, a plastered brick pavement (floor
12:27
) covered an earlier room deposit (
12:50
); excavation did not reach the base either of the latter deposit or of
the walls of the room. Above floor
12:27
, deposit
12:17
contained a secondary pebble surface. The next room in order was filled
with a homogenous and soft gray ashy soil (16:22) that covered a compacted
pale brown surface into which sherds had been impressed (floor 16:28). The
latter floor was identical in character and elevation to floor
16:32
in the third room to the south; this circumstance implies that the wall
16:20
separating these two rooms was a secondary construction upon this floor,
built to subdivide a larger room. The soils above floor
16:32
included room deposit
16:26
below weathered wall collapse. The striking differences in soils on each
side of wall
16:20
suggests that one or both of these rooms may have been deliberately
filled.

The fourth room underwent significant alteration
during its use-span. Pisé wall
16:38
, both faces of which bore a thick dense plaster, partitioned this room
into two equal parts. Whether this 25 cm wide wall is a secondary division
of a once larger room remains uncertain, as excavation did not reach the
bottom of wall
16:38
. The space west of wall
16:38
was then filled with solid brickwork to create a small platform, 2.8 x 1.2
m in extent (platform
16:18
). The space east of wall
16:38
initially had a plastered surface (
16:42
) and was filled with reeds and pisé to form a raised surface (platform
16:19
) into which was set a bin (
16:24
) and a hearth (16:3), both oriented parallel to the main wall 16:8. A
thin deposit of weathered pisé collapse separated the latter two phases
of construction.

The southernmost room of the suite contained an ashy
gray soil (room deposit
16:13
) upon a yellow silty surface (floor
16:25
) than in turn covered an earlier room deposit (
16:27
). Several installations were constructed upon floor
16:25
. Two small mud brick benches,
16:14
and
16:16
, abutted wall 16:9. A thickly plastered circular columnar feature, 1.2 m
across and 30 cm high, was free-standing upon the floor; the fire-reddened
upper surface of this feature suggests use as an oven foundation or
hearth.

The courtyard bound to the south by wall
12:15
and to the east by wall
12:16
was paved with mud brick and contained at least one free-standing room and
several different additional installations. The paving appeared as long
parallel joints between red mud brick coursing, the cross joints of which
were infrequently visible. While for the most part the coursing was
linear, tightly arced coursing did appear in the southwestern portion of
the exposure. The brick paving formed at least two distinct superimposed
surfaces separated by red bricky soil (upper paving 12:18, lower paving
12:33 and 12:35), and a sounding the southwest corner of Tr 12 shows that
mud brick coursing extended some 40 cm below the upper preserved surface
of the courtyard, indicating that the paving periodically was renewed. Mud
brick walls
12:30
,
12:36
,
12:37
and
12:38
formed a seemingly free-standing room, 3.0 x 2.5 m in extent, at the
northern end of the exposure. The walls, generally thin (25 cm) and poorly
preserved, survived only to 5-7 cm in height, and gave no indication of a
doorway. The walls seem to have been set upon the lower paving
12:35
(the upper paving runs up to the walls), implying that this structure was
built as a secondary feature of the courtyard. The plastered surface
12:28
formed the room floor; this surface sloped down to the east; impressions
of reed matting formed a large circular patch on the floor across the
center of the room. A plastered basin set into the floor occupied the
northwestern corner of the room.

South of this room, screen wall
12:20
ran across the western portion of the courtyard, partitioning this space
into two parts. This mud brick wall was built from an undetermined surface
below the lower courtyard paving (paving
12:33
south of the wall,
12:35
to the north), but continued in use even after the upper pavement was laid
down. Immediately east and northeast of wall
12:20
lay two sunken hearths, one embedded in each of the two courtyard pavings.
The upper hearth (loc
12:23
) was a roughly circular pit, 60 cm across and 10 cm deep, and filled with
black ashy soil. The lower hearth (12:32) formed an elongated oval pit, 75
cm long, 45 cm wide, and 15 cm deep. This hearth was also filled with a
blackened ashy soil, and heat had reddened the bottom and lower sides of
the pit. Two large basins punctuated the center of the courtyard, south of
wall 12:20, and a third basin lay in the southeast corner of the
courtyard. The two central basins are associated with the lower pavement.
Set side-by-side, and separated by a low ridge of brickwork, the basins
were lined with a mud plaster. The northerly basin 12:39 formed a 1.8 x .8
m oval and was 20 cm deep, the fill of which was laminated silts washed
off the courtyard surface; the southerly basin was more square in shape,
1.3 m to a side and 10 cm deep, and filled (perhaps deliberately) with
loose red sediment similar to the paving bricks of the platform. The third
basin
12:48
, associated with the upper pavement and partially set into wall
12:15
, was circular (nearly 90 cm across) and lined with white plaster; poorly
preserved, only the bottom of the basin survives.

The space south of wall
12:15
and west of wall
12:29
presented a brick pavement, the coursing of which arced to accommodate the
corner created by these two walls. Unlike the courtyard, the exposed
portion of this pavement lacked inset features or ancillary facilities.
Nonetheless, this space almost certainly represents an outdoor area
contemporary with the courtyard itself. The open space east of wall 16:8
presented a very different character: a sequence of thinly bedded wash
deposits (loc 16:5) at least 60 cm thick that sloped down northeastward
from the top of wall 16:8 to fill an existing depression. The wash
deposits covered pit
16:35
(55 cm across, 70 cm deep with a bell-shaped profile, and filled with soft
trash and ashy soils) in the basal exposure of the depression. While the
wash deposits themselves clearly post-date phase 2, the depositional
topography indicates a significant slope east of the phase 2 architecture;
additional excavation is required to assign pit
16:35
to one or the other phase.

Excavation reached earlier, phase 3 architecture only
below floor
16:28
and
16:32
. These floors covered a silty sediment (16:31=16:33) that extended
beneath wall 16:20, surrounding a wall that ran parallel to the later wall
16:9 through the two phase 2 rooms, taking a southwestward turn to form a
corner below floor 16:32. A small 15 cm deep sounding into the
16:33
deposit reached a black surface, just above which sat an intact small
plain pot.

South Mound Topography and Site Formation

Several excavation units, other soundings, and areas
of bulldozer section cleaning conducted on the south mound in 1999 lacked
coherent exposures of architecture, but nevertheless provides valuable
information about the site. This information is here combined with results
of the other excavations of 1999 and 1998 to draw conclusions about site
topography and formation.

Tr 13 was a 5 x 5 m square placed on the lower
northwest slope of the south mound, northeast of the expected location of
Braidwood's Trench II (Fig. 2), with the intention of testing this part of
the mound for bulldozer impacts and the depth and nature of underlying
intact deposits. This unit reached a maximum depth of 2.8 m. The upper 35
cm contained four distinct parallel soil levels -- plowzone, a dense gray
clay, a brown granular soil, and a dense buff clayey silt, all uniformly
sloping from SE to NW. Below 35 cm was a dark brown blocky soil with
carbonate concretions that became denser with depth, extending to a paler
soil with fewer carbonates at 1.4 m below the surface. Modern materials
(plastic, sugar sacking, etc.) occurred through the upper half meter or
more of this sequence, and occasional glass beads, a copper dish and an
Ottoman period pipe appeared throughout both the dark brown and underlying
paler brown soil (to 1.6-1.8 m below the surface). Animal holes were
extremely dense through these soils, and the recent artifacts imply
relatively deep disturbance. The nature of the upper four soil units and
the regularity of their boundaries suggests that these were formed by the
diagenetic effects of irrigation, perhaps on redeposited (bulldozed) soil.
However, the uniformity of the dark brown soil, the density of carbonate
nodules, and the appearance of stratigraphically floating features (among
them the ghost of a circular pit identified by a heavily concreted
columnar mass of burnt stones, ground stone, sherds and bone, 40 cm high)
within it more suggest long-term soil formation of the kind found
elsewhere at Kurdu. Moreover, both brown soils also contained sloping
lines of small rock and sherds visible in section, and their abundant
sherdage typically was very fragmented and rounded, implying that they
were accretions of slope wash. More intact cultural deposits began to
appear at 1.6 m below surface. These deposits, also sloping to the NW,
were mostly beds of ashy soil, a hearth, a large pit, and, at the bottom
of the exposure, the stub of a curvilinear pisé wall. The pottery in the
intact archaeological deposits was Amuq E in character, as was that in the
developed soil overburden. The latter soils also contained a surprising
number of prehistoric small finds, including animal and human figurines;
incised decorated beads, glass beads, other beads and pendants; stamp
seals and a cylinder seal; stone vessels; and a stone labret.

Tr 18 was a 3 x 3 m sounding on lower north skirt of
the south mound, a portion of the mound not previously explored. Earlier
surface collections had encountered a number of pottery wasters in this
area and the adjacent saddle between the two mounds. Tr 18 had the general
goals of documenting recent disturbances in this part of the mound and
ascertaining the depth and nature of intact deposits below disturbance,
and the more specific goal of finding a source for the surface wasters.
Excavation indicated that the modern plowzone is the only recent
disturbance in this area, and developed soil remains intact above
prehistoric architecture. The developed soil (about 50 cm thick) covered a
mottled silty soil (loc 2+5) that contained ash lenses, shallow trash pits
4, 7 and 8, the base of oven 6, and child burial 3. The latter was a small
elongated pit (75 cm long, 25 cm wide) lined with traces of matting, in
which appeared a cranium at the WSW end, a complete unpainted pot at the
ENE end, and a few fragments of post-cranial elements near the skull. The
oven floor 6 (a fire-reddened circular clay surface, 70 x 80 cm in area,
10 cm thick) appeared at the bottom of the mottled soil; pit 7, filled
with ash and burnt bone and sherds, may be associated with this oven. Soil
2+5 had also been affected by pedogenesis that obscured stratigraphic
relationships among these elements. The soil lay directly upon and within
architecture, the top of which lay within 60 cm of the surface (Fig. 7).
The two light brown pisé walls 12 and 13, each 30 cm wide, formed the
corner of a room. Two fragmentary walls of very dense light gray pisé lay
within the room, wall 17 placed against the south face of wall 12 and wall
14 crossing the room parallel to wall 13. These walls are either secondary
additions to the room or an earlier phase of the building. Wall 11 ran
along the western face of wall 13; this wall, 60 cm across, was
constructed of mud brick laid two courses wide in a thick mud mortar. This
wall may be a portion of a second building that abutted the first. The
contents of room was a 45 cm thick post-abandonment soil 9 very similar in
character to the overlying soil 5, which lay upon mottled green/gray
clayey deposit 18; a small 30 cm deep sounding into loc 18 detected four
apparent surfaces. Ashy trash deposit 16 ran up to wall 12 from the north.
The excavation season ended before the base of the walls could be reached.
The pottery associated with the building and deposits above it includes
red-washed, wipe burnished and transitional painted sherds; although none
of the distinctively Amuq D types appeared in trench this pottery has a
distinctively Amuq D appearance, and lacks the hallmark Amuq E types.

The bulldozer cut across the south end of the mound
created a 2 m high section that runs obliquely across the mound topography
indicated in the 1938 map (compare Fig. 2with Braidwood and Braidwood
1960: Fig. 13). Three sections, 3.5-5 m wide and designated A-C from east
to west, were cut back along a 30 m portion of the bulldozercut. Section A
showed 2+ m of slope wash and developed soil without reaching intact
archaeological deposits. Section B indicated a similar wash and soil
overburden above possible architectural collapse that covered bedded ash
and hardened surfaces at 1.4-2.0 m below the section surface; section C
revealed 1.6 m of slope wash abovea more complexly bedded sequence of
(from top to bottom) a clayey silt, a trashy soil, clayey silt, a thin ash
bed, and then a third clayey silt deposit that contained a clusterof
stones (architecture?). The pottery from these sections is generically
prehistoric or specifically Amuq E in character, with some later materials
appearing in the wash and upper levels; among the latter are examples of
Karaz burnished, EBA Plain Simple, and Hellenistic painted (these periods
all sporadically appear in surface collections from the same part of the
site).

The excavation latrines dug on the lower northeastern
skirt of the south mound offer additional views into the mound. The 1998
latrine cut again presented a 1.2 m thick deposit of slope wash and
developed soil above a 10-15 cm thick ashy deposit that contained a
limited amount of pottery and bone; this ashy soil covered a very stiff
clayey silt that lacked artifacts. The 1999 latrine cut, located further
north, lacked the ashy deposit and contained even fewer artifacts, but
otherwise was similar to the first.

The work on the south mound supports three
conclusions about site formation.

1. The absence of developed soil on the mound summit
(Tr
1/6/9
) confirms the reports of recent bulldozer activity there. But the
existence of developed soil in the other excavations to the east and north
imply that this disturbance was relatively limited in extent, while the Tr
13 sequence implies burial rather than removal of deposits in this
direction. The topographic changes to the mound since 1938 corroborate the
latter implication, with the deeply embayed western portion of the saddle
being partially in-filled.

2. The extent of the Amuq E settlement on the south
mound can now be estimated at 2-3 ha. This conclusion is based on the
constraint northward of probable Amuq D architecture near the surface in
Tr 18, the absence so far of Amuq E occupation on the north mound, the
deep mantle of slope wash around the skirts of the south mound that
exaggerates its size, the depth of Amuq E deposits in Braidwood's Trench
I, and the topography of the mound in Braidwood's time. Taking these
factors together, the 87.5 m contour of Braidwood's map approximates the
extent of the Amuq E settlement at 2 ha; allowing for additional
occupation around the edges might add another hectare at most.

3. The Amuq E deposits formed a small but
comparatively high mound, the steep slopes of which were subsequently
moderated by erosional redeposition and the recent bulldozer activity on
its summit. The excavations to date strongly suggest that this mound
topography reflects Amuq E platforming and thick trash deposits. The
latter appear not only around Tr 14 but also further west in the center of
the mound: Braidwood reports deposits very similar to the Tr 14 bedded
trash in his Trench I, where the deposits at 1.5-2.0 m below the surface
"contained numerous narrowly separated gray ash lines. Some of these
showed reed impressions, groups of which all ran in one direction as if
the reeds had formed part of walling or flooring, but without trace of
interweaving" (Braidwood and Braidwood 1960: 175).

MICROARTIFACT
ANALYSIS - 1999 Rana Ozbal (Northwestern University)

It has long been recognized that macroartifacts do not necessarily
represent primary room function or activity areas due to both natural and
cultural formation processes (Butzer 1982: 99-100; Schiffer 1975, 1976).
Even in situ artifacts may reflect partial inventories of occupation
and/or the immediate pre-abandonment situation, which may not exemplify
the daily use patterns of rooms (Schiffer 1985: 26-28). Systemic analysis
of microartifacts contained in floor deposits is another way to assess
room function. Smaller artifacts more accurately reflect primary
depositional processes in maintained activity areas since they are easily
lost by their owners and are often overlooked in everyday housekeeping
activities such as sweeping (McKellar 1983; Schiffer 1983: 679, 1987:
267-268). The analysis of microdebris or microartifacts, which become
gradually embedded within floors and occupational surfaces, may be
directly indicative of room function (Rosen 1989, 1991, 1993).
Furthermore, the specific types of microartifacts and their fraction sizes
may reflect both cultural formation processes (e.g. regular cleaning
habits, degree of trampling or discard practices) and natural formation
processes such as wind or erosion (Hayden and Cannon 1983; Kirkby and
Kirkby 1976: 236-238; Schiffer 1983: 679-680). Analysis of the
microartifacts in multiple overlying floors can identify changes or
continuities in the function of certain rooms or parts of rooms. In short,
the study of microartifacts may be used (i) to obtain contextual
information on activity areas, (ii) to differentiate indoor and outdoor
spaces, (iii) to understand the role of cultural and natural formation
processes, and (iv) to infer the accessibility of rooms through degree of
trampling. Microartifact analysis can also serve as an independent check
on inferences of room function made from architectural features or
macroartifact distributions.

The analysis here is a pilot study to test the applicability of
microarchaeological techniques at Tell Kurdu. Although it is commonly
believed that such techniques are most beneficial at semi-sedentary sites
or at sites where preservation of macroartifacts is rare, microarchaeology
is becoming more common at mounded sites as well (Rosen 1986: 96, 1989:
564, Matthews and Postgate 1994: 171-181; Rainville: this issue).
Microartifact analyses can be useful at large tell sites like Tell Kurdu
where only selected contexts are fully screened with a 5 mm mesh, and most
interpretation is based on the macro finds.

Methodology

The methodology employed in this study was adopted
from Lynn Rainville (see the Titris report in this issue). In the 1999
season at Tell Kurdu, 37 samples taken from Amuq C and E contexts were
fully analyzed. The samples selected for analysis were mostly indoor and
outdoor surfaces and supra-floor deposits, although samples from trash
pits, walls, fill layers and various fire installations were included
(Table 1). The average sample size was 10 liters. Samples were initially
wet-sieved using a 1.00 mm mesh and then allowed to dry. After having been
placed through a series of four sieves (6 mm, 4 mm, 2 mm and 1 mm), the
contents of each mesh size were sorted into 5 main categories (pottery,
bone, lithics, shell and other items including beads, bitumen, charcoal
and grinding stone fragments). The sieves mainly assisted in creating
size-graded subsamples that helped avoid sorting biases. A X10
magnification was used for the identification and sorting of the small
artifacts and to verify classification. Each artifact ranging from 1-15 mm
in size was then measured on a millimetric scale. Fragment size per unit
volume (counts for each size category per liter) was used as the main
index in all calculations. This report focuses on three classes of
artifacts: ceramics, bone and chipped stone.

Results

Fragment size is probably the most informative
attribute for making inferences about microceramics. Lack of sherds in the
smaller sized fractions is usually attributed to lower intensity foot
traffic (Kirkby and Kirkby 1976: 237; Rosen 1993: 147). At Kurdu, however,
this situation is better explained by the interplay between the material
composition of the ceramics and natural site formation processes. The
distribution of Amuq C and E ceramics in the smallest (1-2 mm) size
category provided significantly different results at the 0.01 level (Fig.
8). While ceramics of this size fraction appeared in all Amuq E floor
samples, less than 10% of the Amuq C floor samples yielded ceramics of
this size. The latter thus seem to dissolve into their constituent parts
in the 1-2 mm size range, possibly because a high percentage of the Amuq E
ceramics were "fired to a higher temperature than were the earlier
[Amuq C] wares" (Braidwood and Braidwood 1960: 183). The resistance
of Amuq E ceramics to disintegration at small sizes can be attributed to
the chemical transformation and vitrification that clay minerals undergo
at high temperatures (Sinopoli 1991: 30). Unless evidence for equivalent
firing conditions is provided, cross-phase microceramic analyses and the
direct association of public and private areas with sherd size are
problematic.

Larger sized bone fragments (11-15 mm) were quite
rare in all samples, especially in floor samples. This might be because
"most bones that are dropped on the floor are swept away or eaten by
dogs and other scavengers, but small bones or fish scales as well as
fragments of larger animal bones, are often trampled into the living
surface" (Rosen 1991: 100). However, in both Amuq C and E contexts by
far the highest counts of small (1-3 mm) bone (and in some instances small
chipped stone) were found in the wall samples and some fill/trash
deposits. Perhaps the secondary and tertiary nature of such deposits
explains this concentration of small sized materials; the microartifacts
in these contexts have been more exposed both to abrasive cultural and
noncultural formation processes.

Of the materials analyzed chipped stone is the least
prone to sampling biases since it is comparatively less sensitive to
damage through depositional processes. Furthermore, unlike ceramic and
bone microartifacts, lithic debris provides the most accurate evidence for
craft production (Fladmark 1982).

Depositional Contexts

In two Amuq E areas room function could be inferred
from non-portable artifacts (as opposed to macroartifacts), but in the
Amuq C area no functional designation beyond `large architectural complex'
was possible through these means. In the Amuq C case microartifacts
provide a method to identify room functions that were otherwise invisible.
The functionally identifiable areas in the Amuq E case include (i) the Tr
11 phase 1 kiln complex, and (ii) the Tr 14 room with bread ovens. In such
situations, microartifact studies can illuminate differences between
actual and intended uses of space and serve as an independent check on
such inferences.

Amuq E: The Tr 11/15 The Kiln Complex

Five samples were collected from Tr 11, three from
the interior floor
11:14
, of which two were corner samples and the third a center), one from the
exterior surface
11:15
, and one from inside kiln 4 (Fig.9; seeFig. 3). The workshop area appears
to have been swept regularly and thoroughly (including corner areas). The
careful maintenance of the interior area accentuates the stark difference
between the interior and exterior surfaces. All types of artifacts are
consistently three to five times more abundant in the exterior area. Such
a differentiation should be expected based on ethnoarchaeological studies
(Kramer 1982: 90, 1979: 149). As the exterior sample contained high
densities of artifacts in a full range of sizes, it likely was derived
from a trampled but yet trash-filled passageway. The elongated shape of
surface
11:15
, which traverses the trench from east to west is also indicative of such
an passage. Unlike the interior and exterior floor samples from this area
where foot traffic was high, the untrampled kiln sample yielded no
materials in the 1-2 mm category, with the exception of small amounts of
chipped stone, a material less prone to size reduction through trampling.
This confirms that trampled floor surfaces, both indoors and outdoors,
will be relatively rich in small artifacts (Kirkby and Kirkby 1976).

Amuq E: The Tr 14 The bread/food preparation area

Five microarchaeological samples were taken from the
`bread/food preparation' room of Tr 14. Three of these were from different
parts of the accretion surface 15 (threshold, center and southwest
corner). The other two include a sample of oven-debris (ash deposit 12) as
well as a sample taken from the low partitioning wall 32 between the two
ovens (Fig.10; see Fig. 5a).

Analysis of microdebris showed that this room was a
multi-purpose area, more poorly maintained than the ceramic workshop. In
addition to baking bread and preparing food, the microdebris results
indicate that stone bead making, shell working and flint knapping had also
taken place here. Seventy-two percent of all the beads from the 37
microdebris samples were contained within the three samples from surface
15. In fact, five of the thirteen beads (38%) from this room have rough,
cornered, and still sharp edges, which suggest that this was a primary
bead manufacturing area (Kenoyer et al. 1991). Shell working may also have
taken place here. While all other Amuq C and E samples yielded at most one
or two pieces of marine shell, two of the floor samples from this room
alone yielded 27 fragments, of which at least one has clearly been worked.
Both the quantitative difference and the presence of worked shell
fragments suggest that shell ornaments may have been manufactured in this
room. The sample taken from the southwestern corner yielded numerous
flakes from the same distinct yellowish brown flint (nearly half lithics
from sample), including cortical flakes, which suggest primary reduction
rather than tool sharpening. Several pieces of this yellowish flint were
also noted among flakes from samples from the center of the room and from
the threshold area to the east. The presence of hazardous materials like
flint and obsidian debitage suggests that the maintenance of this room was
not a high priority. As noted by Simms and Heath, "the household
activity area [is] in some instances `dirtier' than the secondary refuse
deposits" (1990: 805).

In addition, pottery of all sizes is heavily
concentrated in the sample from the southwestern corner of the room, while
most of the bone, especially of the small sizes, is concentrated in the
threshold area (four times more than the other floor areas). Although
heavy concentrations of microdebris in entryways may be attributed to
sweeping (Metcalfe and Heath 1990: 792), in this case it does not answer
why bone only, and not other lithic, ceramic or shell remains, is abundant
in this area. Since more than half of this bone concentration is
relatively small and light (less than 3 mm in size), this material was
probably brought in, from the adjacent trash area rich in faunal remains,
by natural agents such as wind, known to size-sort particles (Schiffer
1987: 268-269).

Amuq C: The Tr 12/16 Large Architectural Complex

Twenty seven Amuq C samples were obtained from Tr
12/16. The samples include ten floor deposits taken from five indoor and
outdoor surfaces, six supra-floor deposits taken immediately above these
floors, six fill or trash deposits, three wall samples, one hearth sample
and one sample of a basin interior (Table 1; see Fig. 6).

The samples from fill/trash 12:8,
12:22
,
12:50
and
16:13
are the richest in overall quantity of material in most size fractions for
the artifact categories represented. Even though some degree of natural
size sorting processes probably take place among trash, one still expects
the highest and the most random mixture of sizes to appear in such
deposits. The samples from pisé wall
12:16
were also quite rich in material (with the exception of shell), but were
more size sorted than the trash samples, yielding much higher
concentrations of small materials, especially bone (Fig.11). The sample
material reflects the parent, organic-rich trash deposit from which the
soil was dug to make the pisé. Such tertiary deposit materials, exposed
to a wide array of abrasive natural and cultural formation processes,
typically contain high numbers of small sized fractions (Schiffer 1987:
267-269).

Although several outdoor samples were collected, time constraints in
analysis permitted only one Amuq C outdoor sample to be fully analyzed.
This sample was taken from the area outside the compound close to the
south face of wall
12:15
(Fig.11). Results show that the sample was persistently higher in large
microartifacts (4-15 mm) of the four types represented than all other Amuq
C samples. With such high concentrations of large materials and relatively
few small ones, this outdoor sample is different from the one taken
outside the ceramic workshop in Tr 11. While the latter, high in all sizes
of microartifacts, possibly represents a heavily trampled passageway, the
former was taken from an area much closer to a wall that presumably
received less traffic.

Nine samples were taken from floors
12:17
,
12:28
,
12:52
,
16:28
, and
16:32
. Of these four floors, two were mud plastered while the remaining three
were packed earth surfaces. This distinction appears to be significant.
Two samples were taken from adjacent quadrants in each of the two
superimposed plastered floors
12:28
and
12:52
). The microartifacts from these four samples are each markedly different
in artifact densities and fragment size distributions from one another,
thus showing no continuity across space or time. Such high variation among
closely clustered samples is probably because this random mixture of
microartifacts was already present in the mud-plaster used in floor
construction. These artifacts thus should not be used to infer room
function. The recovery of a complete human adult metatarsal bone, clearly
not occupational debris, from the upper plaster confirmed this inference.
Moreover, portions of reed matting were identified in the center part of
this room (loc 31), overlying the uppermost plaster floor; the use of mats
would have inhibited microartifacts and other particles from penetrating
the plaster (Matthews and Postgate 1994: 190).

Microartifacts are more likely to be characteristic of the activities that
took place on two packed earth floors
16:28
and
16:32
, which had no evidence of matting or plastering. Two samples taken from
each of the adjacent rooms indicate that these rooms were functionally
distinct. The southern room may have had an offset entrance on its
southwest side (loc
12:47
), while the northern room probably had no doorways. One would expect the
more accessible southern room to have smaller sized sherds due to heavier
foot traffic. Indeed, this room did yield higher quantities of small (1-2
mm) microceramics and bone than the northern one as well as all other
indoor Amuq C surfaces (Fig. Fig.12). The northern room, by contrast,
yielded the largest ceramics recovered from all Amuq C indoor floor
surfaces. The latter room's relatively small size, central position, and
lack of trampling, suggest it was probably used as a storage area. Chipped
stone tool manufacture appears to have been practiced in the southern,
more accessible room since lithics of all sizes are 2-3 times more
prevalent here than any other surface (including the lithic concentration
in the Tr 14 building) (Fig. 13). As in the Tr 14 building, cortical
flakes are present suggesting that this was also a primary reduction area.

Conclusion

Several conclusions are suggested by this pilot
study. First, small-sized ceramic fractions may not always be correlated
with trampling since other factors such as material composition or
depositional process can bias samples as well. For ceramics, firing
technology has demonstrable effects on fracture size. Bone size, on the
other hand, is highly affected by various abrasive formation processes.
Perhaps these biasing factors can explain why in many instances artifact
distributions are more related to depositional context than to
identifiable room functions.

Secondly, although built installations may provide
stereotypical designations for room function, these designations often
overlook the multi-functionality and changeability of space (Bailey 1990:
21-22). Microarchaeology is important because it can provide evidence for
more ephemeral activities that lack architectural correlates (such as
ovens, kilns and other fire installations). This was illustrated most
clearly in the room identified as a `bread/food preparation' area, but
clearly used for other tasks such as shell working, bead making and lithic
tool production. It must be noted that before these inferred activities
can be designated as practices, as opposed to incidental events, samples
from overlapping multiple floors should be analyzed. Only then can
consistent practices be differentiated from intermittent events.Overall,
this pilot study demonstrates that microarchaeological analyses can
provide a useful complement to the study of architecture and macroartifact
distributions as a way to reconstruct ancient intra-site activity.

PYROTECHNIC
INSTALLATIONS Jesse Casana (University of Chicago)

The past several seasons of excavation at Tell Kurdu
have produced a large number of pyrotechnic installations, dating to all
phases of occupation at the site (Amuq C-E). The numerous installations
exhibit a remarkable variability in design, physical characteristics such
as hardness and composition, and location within the site in relation to
other architectural features. While some of the differences among the
installations may be a result of the generally non-standard designs
frequently employed in pyrotechnic facilities, it is very likely that many
of the strikingly disparate qualities are the product of differing
functions. While pyrotechnic installations are commonly encountered in
excavations of ancient settlements, they generally are not systematically
analyzed or categorically reported, with some notable exceptions including
Abu Salabikh (Crawford 1981) and Tell Abada (Jasim 1985). Accordingly,
there is very limited comparative archaeological material from the ancient
Near East, and even less methodological precedent for the study thereof.
The result has been that even when installations are reported, they are
often described as "kilns", "ovens" or
"hearths," without supportive contextual and quantitative
evidence for such functionally loaded terms. It is our hope that a
thorough formal and contextual analysis, combined with a forthcoming
quantitative analysis of the composition and firing temperatures of the
installations, will allow their respective types and functions to be more
convincingly established, and provide the basis for a better understanding
of the organization of production and use of space at Tell Kurdu.

Kilns

Several pyrotechnic installations have been found at
Tell Kurdu which we regard as ceramic kilns. All were found in Tr 11/15,
which appears to have been a ceramic production area. Four installations
excavated in Tr 11 form part of an orthogonally planned work area (kilns
4, 6, 7 and 8), an area that also includes two pits and a partial
perimeter wall (Fig.3). The pyrotechnic installations themselves are not
well preserved, as all have been truncated by the plowzone. No
superstructures are extant on any of the installations, prohibiting an
analysis of the kiln types represented. However, the size and character of
the floors and wall stubs of the installations are consistent with several
types of single and double chamber kilns such as those found at Tell Abada
(Jasim 1985). The best evidence that the installations indeed functioned
as kilns comes from the fact that much of their wall and floor material
has been completely vitrified into ceramic slag. This suggests the
installations in Tr 11 are kilns because the heat required to vitrify clay
far exceeds the temperature achieved in any cooking or household heating
installation. Large numbers of overfired potsherds were found in the
immediate vicinity of the installations, which is one of the best
indicators of ceramic production (Moorey 1994: 144). The remains of
several other features that are similar to the kilns in color and
composition were found in Tr 15 (notably installation 3). Unfortunately,
they are too extensively damaged by plowing and erosion to provide any
more than a suggestion that the ceramic workshop was originally more
extensive or longer lived than the coherent phase 1 features demonstrate.

All of the kilns are constructed of highly
chaff-tempered clay, which preserves impressions of both straw, and much
larger reed material. In some cases it appears that reeds have been laid
horizontally and surrounded by packed mud and clay to form the floor and
walls of the installations. While all four kilns are contemporary, none
are formally the same, suggesting some functional variability among them.
Kilns 4 and 6 have extremely hard floors and walls, with much of the
construction material completely vitrified, while kilns 7 and 8 are much
softer and contain only very small fragments of ceramic slag. This is
likely due to the different firing temperatures utilized to produce
different kinds of pottery. Kilns 4 and 6, very similar in form and
hardness, are remarkably different when viewed in section. Kiln 4 is dark,
charcoal black, while kiln 6 is bright orangish-red, suggesting that
different kilns may have been used for different oxidizing and reducing
firing atmospheres. It is our hope that analysis of the firing
temperatures attained within the kilns and of the composition of the
construction material will allow the differences among the kilns to be
quantitatively demonstrated. The sherd assemblage from floor 14 inside the
workshop includes a wide variety of vessel types; as many are burned or
overfired, this assemblage likely represents the range of ceramics being
produced. The sherds from within the workshop include coarse cooking wares
as well as fine painted pottery, indicating that both were being produced
in the same area. The distribution of the floor assemblage, collected in a
one meter grid, appears to show a non-random pattern that may further
imply which kilns were used for firing what types of pottery.
Cumulatively, the qualitative and potentially quantitative differences
among the kilns themselves, the pottery types found in the workshop, and
the spatial distribution of the sherds all suggest that many different
kinds of pottery were being produced at one workshop.

An early 5th millennium ceramic workshop is a highly
significant discovery because it implies the presence of specialized
potters, producing ceramics in quantities far exceeding their own personal
or household needs. Workshop production is differentiated from household
production in that the products of a workshop are manufactured for
exchange, while household production is only intended to meet the needs of
an immediate community (van der Leeuw 1984). The craft specialization
associated with workshop production has also been closely tied to
political development (Peregrine 1991). While earlier studies have
suggested that ceramic production at Tell Kurdu was probably characterized
by "community specialization" (Gerritsen 1994), the ceramic
workshop provides the first concrete evidence for specialized potters. It
is within this framework of specialized production and exchange that the
critical social and political developments of the Chalcolithic Amuq can
begin to be analyzed.

Direct archaeological evidence for an advanced level
of craft specialization is extremely rare at any Ubaid-related site. Most
sites which have produced kilns dating to the Middle Chalcolithic or
earlier, such as Tell Sabi Abyad (Akkermans and Verhoeven 1995) or Tell
Oueili (Huot 1996), have only isolated pyrotechnic installations. Even at
Yarim Tepe II, where large numbers of pyrotechnic installations were
found, there was no distinct, separate workshop area (Merpert and Munchaev
1993). The only other contemporary site to yield evidence of a
concentrated area of ceramic production is Tell Abada Level I (Jasim 1985:
Fig. 25), where excavators found on the eastern slope of the mound an
enclosed area containing four kilns. Many other installations from the
same level are also reported as kilns, leading Jasim (1989) to suggest
that the site functioned as a central pottery production site in the
Hamrin region. But the installations described as kilns have not been
critically analyzed, and some authors find doubtful the function assigned
to many installations (Moorey 1994: 144). In any case, the pattern at Tell
Abada appears very similar to that at Tell Kurdu, characterized by at
least one enclosed area on the eastern slope of the mound containing
several different kilns. Further excavations in this area at Tell Kurdu
will provide a broader context for the workshop, as well as earlier phases
of use of the same area.

Ovens

Ovens and hearths generally receive even less
attention than do pottery kilns. However, the Early Dynastic IIIa levels
at Tell Abu Salabikh produced a large number of pyrotechnic installations
which, while later in date than the installations at Tell Kurdu, provide a
useful model for the categorical division of ovens and hearths. Crawford
(1981) distinguishes two main types of ovens: open hearths, and tandurs or
domed bread ovens. Both these types are represented at Tell Kurdu. One
open hearth (oven 24) with built walls and rectilinear shape was uncovered
in phase 2 of Tr 11. The hearth was found with several whole ceramic
vessels resting upon it and on the adjacent floor. A large rectangular
grinding stone and a bone awl were also found on the same floor, similar
to installations at Tell Abu Salabikh. Crawford (1981: 108 ) suggests a
domestic function, probably cookin, which seems to be born out at Tell
Kurdu by the associated artifacts.

Nearby, in the same phase, two other installations of
a type not represented at Tell Abada or Tell Abu Salabikh were found. The
two features both have hard-baked, curvilinear firing chambers and
clay-lined floors which show a build-up of burned layers (2:8 and
11:25
). The most distinctive feature of the two installations are vertically
placed grinding stones set within the walls of the firing chamber. As
neither the exterior walls nor the superstructure of either installation
is preserved, little more can be said regarding their function.

Several tandur-style bread ovens have also been found
at Tell Kurdu, representing both re-enforced and freestanding types. By
far the best preserved of these come from Tr 14 in Amuq E contexts. The
first architectural phase encountered revealed a small room containing at
least two tandurs (Fig.5a), and possibly a third (loc. 16; PLATE 1),
free-standing tandurs. Ovens
14:13
and
14:18
/21 are virtually identical in construction, built in two elliptical
halves, one above ground, the other partially sunken. The walls of the
preserved superstructures are a slight 3-4 cm thick. The westernmost of
the two installations has a preserved rim, indicating a oval opening on
the top of the dome which would have contained the firing chamber. Two of
the Tr 14 ovens were in use at the same time, implying that the room
functioned as a bakery. This also follows the pattern at Abu Salabikh,
where tandurs are typically found in groups inside rooms (Crawford 1981).

On other parts of Tell Kurdu, where much of the upper
stratigraphy has been highly bioturbated, features are rarely as well
preserved. However, in several locations pyrotechnic installations have
been found which most likely represent the base of similar tandurs. Two
such installations have been found, oven 6 from Tr 18 and oven 18 in Tr 4.
Both of these features are elliptical in shape, similar to tandurs, and
are constructed of fire hardened clay. The installation in Tr 4 is
actually built on top of a paving of thick sherds. Unfortunately, neither
of these installations was found within any architectural context and so
little more can be said of them.

In Tr 15, the phase 2 oven 15:7 possessed an
elliptical, domed firing chamber like the tandurs in Tr 14. However,
unlike those ovens, there is no opening visible on the top of the chamber,
nor are the walls of the installation free-standing, but rather are
contained within a large, poorly-preserved bench, similar to the
re-enforced ovens at Abu Salabikh. Immediately adjacent to the excavated
installation, there is another domed firing chamber which remians
unexcavated (oven 21). Also unlike the tandurs in Tr 14, the ovens are
located in an outdoor courtyard area, which appears to have been used for
pyrotechnic installations for many years, attested by the long sequence of
burned deposits encountered in the 1996 sounding. In a later phase, the
same area is used as the ceramic production area, indicating that many
different kinds of pyrotechnic installations were concentrated in this
part of the site. The location and concentration of installations is most
reasonably explained by the prevailing westerly summer winds, which would
have blown smoke and ash away from the main area of settlement on top of
the mound.

It is our plan to follow this brief report of the pyrotechnic
installations at Tell Kurdu with a systematic, quantitative analysis aimed
at determining: 1) the composition of the construction material used in
each installation, and 2) the maximum firing temperature attained in each.
It is our hope that this data will corroborate the above assignment of
installations to functional categories, suggest possible functions for
enigmatic installations, and provide a basis for analysis of installations
found in future years at Tell Kurdu and elsewhere.

The ceramic assemblage at Tell Kurdu lies at a
critical juncture in the development of early complex societies in
southeastern
Turkey
. Comprised of material relating to Amuq C, D and E, the occupation at
Tell Kurdu spans the transition from local late Halaf-related cultures to
regionally integrated early northern Ubaid-related cultures in the Amuq
plain. Preliminary results have already been published of the pottery
recovered in the 1998 excavation season (Yener et al. in press); this
brief report will focus on some results of the 1999 season.

Processing Methods

Altogether over 600 bags of pottery were recovered in
the last season, representing around two metric tons of material. All body
sherds have been kept, to serve as the basis for more detailed fabric
studies in the future. Excavators were therefore asked to rank the quality
of their excavated loci on a scale of 1 to 4 (cf. Algaze, 1990: 213 for a
similar approach). A ranking of 1 indicates that the locus was a primary
deposit or a short-term accumulation, such as a burial or a destruction
layer. A ranking of 2 suggests that the locus was possibly a secondary
deposit, though of short term accumulation, as for example a seasonally
deposited small midden or pit. Long-term ancient accumulations are
represented by a ranking of 3 (for example, mudbrick collapse), while
ancient-modern mixing/contaminated loci were given a rank of 4. Excavators
qualitatively assessed the material so that the ceramic analyst could
easily restrict analysis to the most productive loci. Consequently only
loci of ranks 1 and 2 provide the basis for the data in this report; data
from loci with quality rankings of 3 and 4 are not incorporated.
Analysis then proceeded along several lines. Lots of ranks 1 and 2 were
sorted and counted into 4 general categories: category
I: plain wares, body sherds; category
II: plain wares, diagnostic forms (rims, bases, handles, etc.); category
III: decorated wares, body sherds (painted or burnished body sherds);
category IV: decorated wares, diagnostic forms.

Some preliminary data were also kept relating to very
general form classes and decoration patterns. These data are presented in
Table 3 simply to suggest basic patterns. In the following, jars were
simply defined as closed forms with perceptible necks, pots as closed
forms without perceptible necks, and bowls as open forms. Additionally,
several hundred sherds were recorded individually by measured drawings,
and informal observations were logged at the time of study (Fig. 14 Fig.
15). Finally, samples of over 200 sherds were retrieved for paste
composition studies, which will include both NAA and thin-section
analysis. These sherds will also form the basis for a more fully developed
fabric typology. Derived from an analysis of a number of fabric
attributes, this method is similar to work being performed at Domuztepe
(Campbell et al, 1999).

To supplement the Braidwood excavation report, a more
fully rounded typology is being developed that will encompass both wares
and forms. These efforts are ongoing, but it is worth noting that while a
serious effort was made to come to the assemblage fresh, the preliminary
ware typology is converging on that presented by the Braidwoods very
closely. At the same time, these wares are represented at different
frequencies than those found in the Braidwood analysis and the forms and
styles of decoration encourage further analysis.

Results

While a number of new trenches were opened this year,
the best-stratified pottery came from operations 11/15 (east lobe,
adjacent to trench 2 excavated in 1998), 12/16 (north mound), and 14 (the
step trench). Trench 13 yielded many interesting specimens typologically,
but lacked stratigraphic quality, as did the other soundings (except for
trench 18, opened in the last week of excavation).

Trenches 11/15

The pottery, mostly taken from contexts surrounding a
workshop area, was phase E related. Adjacent to Trench 2, excavated in
1998, this operation produced large quantities of a few standard types.
Ubaid-like monochrome (
ULM
) wares predominated, especially medium and coarser varieties (described
below), though small amounts of a clinky variety were uncovered also. As a
part of the medium
ULM
wares, jars with relatively straight necks were accompanied by a number of
painted bowls and goblets (Fig. 14: 1-2; Excavations, figs 146-149).
Often, these jars had handles and were loosely painted with bands and
swags around the neck and shoulder. Bowls and cups with sinuous sides or
bell-shaped profiles were relatively frequent, and nearly all the bichrome
recovered this season was in these forms and from this trench (cf.
Excavations, Fig. 202). While the heavier jars with relatively straight
necks and slightly rounded, slighthly out-turned lips were the most common
jar form, a number of low-collared jars or pots also appeared. These jars
have good parallels with those that appear in the
Rouj
Basin
in Tell el-Aziz levels 5-8 (Iwasaki et al, 1995: Fig. 22: 9).

By far the dominant motif was a multiple brush wavy
line style of decoration (Fig. 14: 1; Excavations: Fig. 144), though bands
and swags also appeared frequently . Other motifs include zig-zags,
cross-hatching, and running lozenges, with and without hatching (cf.
Excavations: figs. 147-148; Fig. 14: 2, 3). A few instances of burnishing
appeared (Fig.
14: 14
-15, 18), representing about 7% of the total trench 11/15 assemblage (see
Table 3). That figure is exactly in line with the 5-9% frequency of DFBW
in phase E suggested by the Braidwoods (Excavations, p. 177). However,
only 28% of the total sherd assemblage (by count, not weight) was painted,
in contrast to the approximately 75% frequency indicated in the Braidwood
report (Excavations, p. 181). That figure rises to 45% when only rim
sherds are included in the sample (probably due to a relatively open
painting style in which bands around rims were ubiquitous; see Table 4
below). Comparable frequency data are not available from many other areas,
though Hammam et-Turkman had 17.6% painted rim sherds for phase IVA and
13.4% in phase B (Akkermans 1988: 198). A total of 10.4% painted rim
sherds was recorded for all of phase IV at Hammam et-Turkman (Akkermans,
1988: 198). Hammam IVA is probably the best match for Kurdu's phase E in
the Hammam sequence, though stronger parallels can be seen at Khosak
Shamali, sector A levels 13-17 (Nishiaki et al. 1999) and Ras Shamra IIIB
(cf. Edens and Yener in Yener, et al., 1999, for additional discussion).
The differences between the phase E assemblage at Tell Kurdu (especially
that in trench 11/15) and any phase at Hammam including IVA may be due to
regional variation, a gap in the sequence at Hammam, or both. The
parallels at Khosak Shamali (a site on the east bank of the
Euphrates
relatively near Hammam et-Turkman) raise the possibility of a gap in the
Hammam sequence.

The presence of reasonable quanitities of an Ubaid
bichrome was a characteristic of the ceramics in trench 11/15 (Fig. 14: 3
and 4). A similar collection was found in neighboring trench 2 in the 1998
excavations. Unfortunately, frequency data for bichrome are not yet
available. The bichrome found at Kurdu varied in quality, with the best
quality coming on finer sinuous sided cups or bowls, often on a white slip
and with designs carefully outlined with thin, black lines (Fig. 14: 3).
The lesser quality bichrome used broad strokes on untreated surfaces, with
the colored paint barely constrained (or not at all) by rough black
outlines. This second variety of bichrome was generally found on orange
fabrics (which the first never was), and often shaped into globular jars
with ring bases. As noted in the prior report on the pottery from trench 2
(Edens and Yener in Yener et al, in press), best parallels are with Ras
Shamra IIIb/IIIc, Kosak Shamali, sector A, levels 12-10 (eg. compare
Nishiaki et al, 1999: Fig. 11, no. 2 and this report, Fig. 14: 3), and
layer A of the
Sakcegozu
Cave
(French and Summers, 1988: figure 6, nos. 1-2). The Braidwoods suggest
that the finer bichrome, particularly that with the white slip, comes
earlier (Excavations: p. 201). If the material in trench 11/15 postdates
that of trench 14, as we now suspect, and there is a bichrome tradition in
phase D (suggested in the Braidwood report [Excavations, p. 167] but not
presently uncovered by us) the possibility exists of either separate
bichrome traditions, or of two modes in the popularity of a single
bichrome ware. Our data are as yet unable to resolve this problem.

Finally, the phase E plain wares came in three basic
varieties. The first was a simple ware, or an unpainted variant of the
Ubaid-Like Monochrome (ULM) wares. These were either simple pinch rim jars
or round-rim incurved bowls (Fig. 14: 5), constructed from well-fired,
sand-tempered pastes. The second variant was a much heavier form of a
similar, well-oxidized, sand-tempered ware for large jars and basins.
Finally, the cooking plain wares (weakly represented in trench 11/15,
though frequency data are currently not available; see Fig. 14: 7) were
what the Braidwoods have described as "New Cooking Ware" (cf.
Excavations, p. 178 and Fig. 139), or simple, neckless, closed forms, in
brownish, incompletely oxidized pastes, often slipped, with moderate to
heavy mineral (and occasionally shell) inclusions (Fig. 1: 7). Very often
these pots had slightly beaded or flattened lips. While the Braidwoods
described a transitional sequence between phase C and phase E cooking
wares, as presently excavated these appear to represent unrelated
traditions. As more of phase D is exposed, this picture may change.

One last piece from trench 11/15 deserves mention. A
few fragments of a single double-mouthed jar were recovered (Fig. 14: 6).
Only the one specimen appeared in this season's excavation, and none have
been reported earlier. It seems likely this piece represents a connection
with sites further to the east, where double-mouthed jars appear more
frequently (as in the middle Khabur at Tell Ziyada and Tell Mashnaqa, seen
in collections at
Yale
University
).

Trench 14

The step trench ran down an exposed section (probably
trimmed by a bulldozer) on the east side of the mound. This operation
produced pottery that had phase E, Ubaid-like, affinities. However, this
group differed from that excavated in trench 11/15 (and trench 2,
excavated in 1998), more closely resembling the assemblage recovered from
trenches 1, 6 and 9 in 1998. Given the specialized nature of the deposits
in trench 11/15, functional differences between trenches 14 (which has a
domestic cast) and 11/15 must be a factor in explaining variations in the
assemblage. However, it also seems likely that trench 11/15 differs
chronologically from all levels of trench 14 presently excavated.
Stratigraphic considerations suggest that these ceramics are earlier than
those from trench 11/15. The assemblages from these trenches, then, may
serve as a basis for a preliminary subdivision of phase E at Tell Kurdu,
to be explored in future work. While several phases in trench 14 are
distinguished archaeologically, the ceramics recovered from them so far do
not suggest much time depth is involved. The dominant component of the
assemblage were masses of very finely made, well-decorated
ULM
in assocation with a series of domestic structures, much like trench
1/6/9
from the 1998 season. The execution of the designs and the quality of the
fabrics were noticeably

higher than those from trench 11/15. Also
significantly, the amount of bichrome dropped dramatically. Most common
forms included finely made small cups and bowls with designs of lines,
checks, hatches, and ladders in controlled geometric patterns, and a
number of miniatures, generally undecorated (Fig.
14: 13
-14, 18-19). There were a series of distinctive cooking wares (Fig. 14:
8-9, including one in a thin, bright orange, incompletely oxidized ware
tempered with varicolor grit. This ware is identical to that used in a
burial vessel dug into trench 18, which itself is similar in form and
decoration to a group of pots found in a series of burials in the north
lobe of the mound last season (Yener et al, in press). Parallels are
strongest with Hammam IVA and IVB, though the frequency of painting is
considerably higher at Tell Kurdu (ca. 45% of rim sherds at Tell Kurdu,
compared with no more than 18% at Hammam et-Turkman; cf. Table 4). Where
the trench 11/15 ceramics included many straight-necked jars
characteristically decorated with bands and swags, sinuous-sided bowls and
cups in both plain and bichrome wares, and bowls with multiple-brush wavy
line designs, the trench 14 pottery had more thin-walled and smaller-sized
bowls and pots, and fewer jars, especially of the varieties found in
trench 11/15. Many designs are congruent with those from Hammam IVA and
Gawra XV-XVII (Tobler, 1950). One striking piece was a very large bowl in
a hard, orange, sand-tempered ware decorated in the multiple brush wavy
line pattern so common during phase E at Tell Kurdu (Fig.
14: 15
).

Trenches 12/16

Of the three major operations opened in the last
season that yielded fairly stratified samples, trench 12/16 on the north
side of Tell Kurdu produced the earliest assemblage, corresponding with
Amuq phase C-D. This group probably represents a late Halaf-related
culture with a very strong local component. As suggested in the Braidwood
report, the characteristic Amuq DFBW was common in this phase, though not
so common as its unburnished counterpart. Where the Braidwoods suggest
that 35-40% of the phase C assemblage was DFBW (Excavations, p: 138), our
findings indicate that only 27% of rims were burnished, and only 14% of
the total sherd bulk (including body sherds).

Best parallels here lie with Ras Shamra IVC/IVB and
the
Rouj
Basin
(Iwasaki et al, 1995;Tsuneki and Iwasaki, 1996; Tsukneki et al, 1998). Of
special note are the carinated bowls with reddish paint on the interior
edge (Fig. 15: 1-2; compare with de Contenson, 1992: figure 189, nos.
5-10), which are what the Braidwoods call "local painted", or
possibly Halaf (Excavations, p: 145-148, though they do not illustrate any
of this description; see also similar forms from the Qoueiq [Mellaart, in
Matthers, 1981: 220, nos. 283, 285]). These painted carinated bowls in a
creamy paste have a nice counterpoint in a series of carinated bowls made
in a DFBW, with burnished interior lips and occasionally exterior edges
also (Fig. 15: 3 and 4). These DFBW carinated bowls present an interesting
conjunction of a regionally popular form made in a local ware and
decorated in a distinctly local style. Also of note are fragments of at
least two fenestrated pedestals (Fig.
15: 26
), which were strikingly similar to those from Ras Shamra IVB (de
Contenson, 1992: Fig. 201). Parallels with the important Hammam sequence
are not striking, though certainly some generic Halaf-related elements
obtain, including carinated bowls with bucrania (generally highly
stylized, indicating a late horizon), and a body sherd in a Halaf style,
finely levigated, well-fired creamy paste with very lustrous red paint
decorated with a group of dotted circles (Fig. 15: 25; compare with
Akkermans in van Loon (ed.), 1988: plate 18: 144). For this last example,
excellent parallels can also be found in the Halaf period excavations at
Umm Qseir, in the middle Khabur of northeastern Syria (Yale University
collections), and at a variety of classic Halaf sites.

But this sherd is anomalous in this assemblage (it is
very likely an imported item), which is dominated by dark-faced
unburnished cooking wares. These cooking wares, which are described by
Braidwood as the second variant in the dark faced unburnished ware group
(and are very accurately characterized in that volume), were very common
(Excavations, p. 141-142). They appeared in a limited variety of forms,
chiefly pots or bowls with internally thickened rims (most commonly,
especially pots or holemouth vessels; Fig.
15: 19
-24), and high-necked jars (much less commonly; Fig.
15: 11
). These pots often had exceptionally thin walls, down to as little as 4mm
thick which is striking for such an otherwise coarse, rough-textured ware.
This cooking ware appears at this juncture to be a relatively local
product, both in form and ware (though some examples may exist in the
Rouj
Basin
), and does not survive phase C (or phase D at the latest).

The other major group of ceramics among the trench
12/16 assemblage was dark-faced burnished ware. A very heterogenous group
(some of the difficulties of which are described below), the DFBW in
trench 12/16 nevertheless had a few meaningful conjunctions of form and
decoration. First, there were a group of very fine, thin-walled jars with
an extremely lustrous, nearly laquer-like finish, always in black (Fig.
15: 6-9). Second, there a number of bowls, sometimes incurved, and
generally more roughly treated with a streakier, brown burnish (Fig.
15: 12
-15). Finally, there were a series of larger forms, including basins and a
very large, heavy storage jar; these were occasionally very highly
polished, and must have represented very significant investments in labor.
Again, good parallels can be found at Ras Shamra IVC and in the Rouj Basin
(Iwasaki et al, 1995).

A glimpse at phase D may have been available in
several post-occupation pits cut into structures in trench 12. One of
these pits was quite large, and contained a rich assortment of very fine
painted corrugated ceramics, beautifully executed and intricately painted
monochrome wares (which differed in form, ware and decoration from the
later Ubaid monochrome wares in trenches 11/15 and 14), and a variety of
burnished wares, included a significantly greater number of reddish
burnished wares which were probably analogous to the Braidwood's
"wiped burnish ware" category. Several fine bow-rim jars
appeared in this assemblage (Fig.
15: 16
), which the Braidwoods proposed as a marker for phase D (Excavations, p.
159). Consquently, we suggest this pit is a phase D pit cut into an
earlier phase C occupation, during a time when occupation at Tell Kurdu
did not persist on the north lobe. Despite the presence of the monochrome
painted wares in this pit, phase D as presently understood has strong
affinities with phase C, particularly in light of the burnished wares and
cooking wares. It does not with phase E since even the monochrome painted
wares differ in form and execution, and the cooking, burnished and
corrugated wares found in phase D so far are not evident in phase E.

Discussion

No consideration of pottery from a site in the Amuq
can begin without reference to the work of the Braidwoods. One finding of
this year's work is that in nearly every detail related to description of
ceramic wares and properties, the Braidwood volume is difficult to improve
upon. Where the Braidwood volume can usefully be supplemented is in
consideration of ware frequencies, and the more explicit consideration of
form and decoration (as they themselves suggested; cf. Excavations, p.
28-29). Additionally, it seems probable that several very large and
heterogenous ware categories, notably Dark-Faced Burnished Ware (DFBW) and
Ubaid-like Monochrome (ULM) will be amenable to subdivision. In
particular, preliminarily we recognize four varieties of
ULM
. The first is a thin, fine, clinky, well-fired ware, generally carefully
painted with lines, bands and occasionally the multiple brush wavy line
motif so typical of phase E at Kurdu. This ware is typically 4-5 mm thick,
lightly sand tempered (if at all), and is a light beige-buff color, though
often reddish as well, and is only rarely slipped or self-slipped. Classic
over-fired greenish fabrics typical of the Ubaid further east and south
are rare in this group, appearing more often in a heavier, granular
variety though never very frequently. The second group is a thicker
variety of the first. It appears to be less frequent, possibly because it
shatters less in which case collection of weight data will be important.
Painting on this variety of
ULM
shares the same basic design patterns, but is generally more coarsely
executed. The third variety of
ULM
is a coarse red ware, often heavily tempered with small white grits which
may be limestone. It is fully oxidized, occasionally with chaff added.
This ware is generally employed for larger, heavier vessels, such as heavy
open bowls with loosely executed painted motifs. However, a number of
miniature jars were also found in this fabric. Finally, there is a group
of sherds with
ULM
designs in a fabric with medium to heavy sand-tempering resulting in a
granular feel to the surface. These are generally thicker (7-9 mm),
heavier, and fairly hard. They tend to be fully oxidized, and painted in a
relatively loose style, almost always in the typical multiple brush wavy
line style. This group often has a fine bright self slip, ranging from
pink to yellow, sometimes on the same sherd (for which reason early
efforts to subdivide on this group were abandoned).

At present, DFBW has been less amenable to consistent
subdivision, and will be a focus offuture research. Similar efforts are
underway in the
Rouj
Basin
(Miyake, in Tsuneki et al,1998; p. 12). While it may be possible to
separate on the basis of color (red burnish fromblack, for example) a
number of sherds have appeared with both colors, both on the samesurface
and on interior and exterior surfaces. Additionally, several striking
examples havemade it clear that sherd color can be changed by
post-depositional processes, which wediscovered when fitting a red sherd
to a black one. A better strategy may be to divide on thebasis of burnish
quality, which ranges from a few strokes to a lacquer-like polish or on
fabriccharacteristics. While burnish quality is also affected by
post-depositional processes, it is stillmore likely to produce a
consistently meaningful division.

Conclusions

Preliminary results are that the 1999 excavation
season material potentially represents a distinct shift from a late (or
even post) Halaf-related local culture to a northern Ubaid culture. The
local culture's distinctive cooking wares, dark-faced burnished wares, and
very occasional painted wares were replaced by the monochrome painted
wares in several recognizable flavors representative of the northern Ubaid,
in addition to a new style of cooking ware. While the Braidwood findings
suggest that transitional layers may exist deeper in the mound, as
currently excavated a smooth transition is not evident, particularly in
the cooking wares. It also appears that the phase E component of Tell
Kurdu is more strongly related to a large, regional interaction sphere
than is the phase C/D component. Halaf influence on the Kurdu pottery,
though apparent, is distinctly attenuated in comparison to that of the
Ubaid. Future research including chemical compositional studies and
soundings of more transitional layers will bear directly on this issue and
others

ADMINISTRATIVE
ARTIFACTS (K. ASLIHAN YENER University of Chicago)

Close to 600 small finds were recorded in the 1999
season and over 100 could have possibly functioned as administrative
devices. These include geometrically shaped clay tokens, stone stamp
seals, clay baling tags and other clay sealings. Seemingly mundane the
clay artifacts are actually some of the most important finds on the site.
The sealings are often impressed lumps of mud with string, basket, fabric,
fingernail, notch, ceramic rim, token and seal impressions visible on the
obverse and/or reverse. Their appearence in great diversity suggests the
existence of commodity management at the site and according to
Schmandt-Besserat (1992) could be the logical predecessors to recording
systems and writing (see also Ferioli and Fiandra 1983).

Seals

The corpus of stamp seals from the 1998 season was
described elsewhere (Yener in Yener et al. in press). While the earlier
finds came in a diversity of materials and incised designs, the 1999
examples were remarkable in having very unusual shapes. Unfortunately the
most whimsical types are from insecure contexts and include miniature
stalk shapes, double conical stamps with cross hatching on both truncated
surfaces and an unusual prismatic bead. Examples of miniature stalk shapes
were found in the First Mixed Range from the 1930's excavations (Braidwood
and Braidwood 1960: Fig 101: 4) and impressed on pottery from Tr.1/6/9
during the 1999 season (Yener in Yener et al. in press Fig 26: 11).
Problematic to date from its fill context is a four-sided black, bead-like
prismatic stone with incised motifs resembling "doodling" but
actually upon close examination depicts stylized quadrupeds camouflaged in
dense foliage and dots (Yener 2000: Fig. 1). Similar delicate, linear
quadrupeds were cut into Phase F stamp seals from Judaidah (Braidwood and
Braidwood 1960: Fig. 193: 9) and lentoid gabled seals from Phase G
(Braidwood and Braidwood 1960: Fig 253: 9). However, the shape of the seal
is better known in later periods such as a cubic seal with rounded corners
from uppermost level I at Atchana/Alalakh in the Amuq dating to the second
millennium B.C. (Woolley 1955: 267) and later 7th centrury B.C. examples
from the Levant.

Another unusual amulet/seal of black stone comes from
a more secure context in Tr 14 and is in the shape of a small, recumbent
dog with cross hatch designs incised on the rectangular base (Fig.17: 17).
The dog has two ears, muzzle and erect tail clearly demarcated and was
perforated across the body. Zoomorphic amulets such as ducks, boar head
and fly with incised decorations generally appear in the Halaf period and
may have been used as seals at Arpachiyah and nearby Gogjali (Mallowan and
Rose 1935: Fig. 51: 798, Pl. V: 9 and Pl VIIa 3rd row; for other sites see
von Wickede 1990: 111-2). From later periods, an animal shaped stamp in
the form of a lion stems from Haci Nebi Tepe near
Urfa
(Stein et al. 1998: Fig. 10 and 11 ) and multiple varieties were unearthed
in the Grey Brick Stratum at Brak dated to the Uruk III-V in the late 4th
millennium B.C. These include recumbent hare, dog and quadruped with criss-cross
patterns cut across the base (Buchanan and Moorey 1984: Pl XI: nos 169,
170, 175). Animal shaped pendants in the Amuq date from Phase B (Braidwood
and Braidwood 1960: Fig. 67: 13) and snake from Phase F (Braidwood and
Braidwood 1960: Fig. 193: 7) although there is no indication that these
were used as seals.

More usual are the stone stamp seals with geometric
motifs incised on the base (Fig.16: 1-3). Tr 18 yielded a truncated
pyramidal seal with square base and decorated with nine encircled drilled
holes (Fig.16: 3). The seal was subsequently pierced from the base to the
original perforation. Drilling can be observed on seals from the
First
Mixed
Range
(Braidwood and Braidwood 1960: Fig. 101: 6) and Ubaid related Phase E in
the Amuq (Braidwood and Braidwood 1960: Fig. 167: 3) but encircled
drillings are typical during the Halaf period seals at Gawra (Tobler 1950:
173:34). Other beads inscribed with figurative designs were found at Kurdu
but again stemmed from insecure contexts and are thus not illustrated
here. The first is a flat, perforated lentoid- shaped white stone incised
with a stag and foliage design. The shape has a familiar bead morphology
especially during the Halaf period. Especially provocative is a
cylindrical stone bead/seal, which begs speculation about the origin of
cylinder seals stemming from perhaps incised beads used as seals. Earliest
cylinder seals appear during the subsequent Uruk period. The design
consists of a scorpion, a stylized human and a quadruped.

Sealings

Of the diversity of clay sealings found at the site
only one had a design impressed on it; this comes from Tr 14 (Fig.16: 4).
The shape of the sealing is concave on the obverse where the stamp was
impressed and convex where it had been pressed against a string,
presumably around the neck of a jar. The motif is a delicate foliate
figure with pine needle-like linear incisions and perhaps a stylized pine
cone dangling from a branch. A garland border surrounds the perimeter of
the sealing but the sealing is broken at the top making it impossible to
determine whether the border is complete. Floral patterns on stamp seals
in a multitude of complex styles were found at Tepe Gawra XIII in a well (Tobler
1950: Pl. 160: no. 38) and Level XII (Tobler 1950: Pl. 54: no 16) as well
as at Ubaid period Degirmentepe (Esin 1985: 261 Fig. 5). Trace element
analyses of clay sources and Kurdu artifacts will ultimately illuminate
the possibility of non-local communication suggested by the stylistic
parallels.

Other impressed clay objects from Tr 14 include
Fig.16: 9 which appears to be wrapped with grass, another one looks like
the impression of a reed and may be a basket sealing (Fig.16: 7) while
another appears to be impressed on string from Tr 16 (Fig.16: 10). Similar
fibrous impressions on sealings were found in Phase E in the earlier
excavations (Braidwood and Braidwood 1960: Fig 160: 20). A small lentoid
pellet with fingernail (?) notches and reed impressions was unearthed in
Tr 16 (Fig.16: 8). Figures16: 5 and 6 from Tr. 14 appear to be of jar
stoppers. Such storage and administrative devices were found from Late
Neolithic period contexts in Sabi Abyad in
Syria
(Akkermans and Duistermaat 1997) and other Halaf/Ubaid examples from
Turkey
and other areas can be found catalogued in Schmandt-Besserat (1992).

Tokens

Only six shapes of a rich and complex corpus are
illustrated of "tokens" or geometrically shaped clay objects
from Kurdu. Called gaming pieces in the past, these administrative devices
come in a variety of shapes and may constitute the precursors of clay
artifacts placed inside hollow balls for record keeping during the Uruk
period (Schmandt-Besserat 1992). Fig.16: 11 is a perforated lentoid shaped
example which is from Tr 14 and from the same trench, Fig.16: 13, is a
squat concial shaped one. Examples of clay cones were found in 1998 (Yener
et al in press Fig. 26: 12, 13) and in the earlier excavations labled
`nails' (Braidwood and Braidwood 1960: Fig. 160: 18). A great quantity of
spheres were also unearthed from Trenchs 12, 14 and 11 (Fig.16: 12,
16: 13
, and 16: 11).